


Lock and Key

by Driverpicksthemooseic (Ratkinzluver33)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Espionage, Eventually???, F/F, M/M, Mission Fic, Moral Ambiguity, POV Alternating, POV Third Person Limited, Redemption, Slow Build, Team, Team Dynamics, Teambuilding, Teamwork, Watch as it becomes hilariously noncanon within days I swear, Working with limited lore is hard, all will be revealed, lore heavy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 07:38:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7749004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ratkinzluver33/pseuds/Driverpicksthemooseic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>She considers. On purely technical terms, their working together is more likely to achieve results.</em>
</p><p>(OR, Talon and Overwatch are forced to cooperate to preserve critical security. This is easier said than done.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lock and Key

**Author's Note:**

> Fourth WIP. I've given up trying to finish things before publishing another work at this point. wHAT IS LIFE LOL
> 
> a "i can see the sun rising and yet im sTILL tYPING WoRDS" story ft. mercy insisting everyone get along, zenyatta giving long inspiring speeches about friendship and love that make genji cry, and so much gay shit u dont even know man
> 
> also, missions, espionage, teambuilding, and sombra being herself
> 
> honestly it's more serious than that but this is the general essence, the fruit concentrate from which this juice was made. hi. welcome to hell, enjoy your stay.

She gets the call at two in the morning. She doesn't sleep heavily in the first place, but she needs -- lives on -- having time to organise her thoughts, to plan for contingency after contingency. There's nothing she hates more than having her beloved silence broken. She picks up anyway. It's their most pleasant and most mild-mannered agent. " _Salut?_ "

"What have you done?"

That's a forward opening. An unsurprising one, but this early on her patience begins to run thin. "I do not think we are on the same page, _ami._ "

"Athena has been compromised."

"Yes," Amélie says, slowly. "By you and your associate."

"You haven't been watching _close enough,_  for someone with such... infallible sight. She's gotten in too far. She has information on- some of our allies."

Amélie narrows her eyes. If there is one thing this man doesn't know, it is the delicate art of subtlety. "She is an agent we trust, Gabriel. Unless you have something to share?"

"No," Gabriel says, and pauses. "We need to fix it. You have your contacts, I have mine."

She almost feels frustration. So close, yet so far. "Why should I be expected to clean up your messes?"

"You're in the database, too, aren't you? Get back to me in an hour." With that, the line goes dead.

Amélie lowers the phone carefully, and allows herself to question, briefly, why she should have to put up with these fools.

* * *

She stays in the shadows at the rendezvous. It's very much Gabriel's style, an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the French countryside. It surprises her that he would choose her own home terf, but it's possible this is some way of earning her trust. She doesn't have trust to earn, but she can pretend if it gets her somewhere. "Come out, come out," she says, calm. "I know you're there. You have such a love for the dark, don't you?"

"I am the dark," Gabriel says, and Amélie is genuinely confused as to how he lets these ridiculous words tumble out of his mouth. He is the dark? Truly? Letting an agent act as if they had something to prove, and something to lose, was a liability.

"What intel have you gathered?"

"The most... reliable source on Athena comes from within Overwatch itself."

"Nothing more, nothing less? Surely their security is not so perfect as to evade both you and your contacts'-"

"Overwatch. Is. The. Authoritative. Source." Gabriel punctuates each word with his deadliest glare. Amélie is not impressed, not even slightly.

"Then we infiltrate Overwatch. Simple."

"You say that like it's easy."

She shrugs. "It could be quite easy indeed. What is the saying, 'You don't know until you try?'"

"That's not like you."

Amélie smiles, slight and pleased. "Very good. No, Gabriel, it is not like me. It is like _you._ "

Gabriel rises up and bristles like a cat. He entertains her, always so melodramatic and filled to the brim with overemphasis and unnecessary flare. It had always been clear he was compensating for something, a secret she'd very much like to be privy to. A muzzle on the dog, so to speak. He was, and always would be, a risk if left unchecked, this alone had shown it. "You want to hide away while I do all the work, do you? I never took you for a _coward,_ Amélie."

She scoffs. "I want to do this my own way. If I follow a plan of yours, I'm certain I will find myself meeting with death in no time at all."

"I suppose. I've already met with Death. I _am_  Death."

"Oh, stop, please, before you hurt yourself trying to keep up your pointless façade."

He snarls, trying to grab at her shoulder, metal claws flashing against soft light, and grows increasingly frantic the more Amélie effortlessly dodges. This is what she'd trained for. He won't beat her at her own game. "You _will_  contribute to fixing this," he hisses, as his silhouette becomes blurred and wispy with smoke, as he rises above her in an amusing attempt to intimidate.

"Only if I find I can get something out of it, _petits os._ " She bows. "I will orchestrate the perfect opportunity to slip into one of their safehouses unnoticed. _You_  will avoid bringing attention to yourself, is this understood?"

Gabriel looks about ready to explode. God, but his temper is fantastic. "Clear as crystal."

"I'm glad we can come to an accord."

* * *

She's studied the Overwatch agents' movement patterns until her eyes begin to sting, and yet she still has no sensible way in. There are plenty of risks, so many needlessly dangerous ways to drop off, ones she fully believes she can handle, but Gabriel. He's so caught up in his own arrogance that he cannot see the bullets aimed for his own skull, right through his own two eyes. She's seen it countless times, watched as he's dissipated into smoke within milliseconds of a hit. One day, one day he is not fated to be so lucky. He will miss.

It is only a matter of time.

She knows there are few places she can hide. Gabriel already lowered their chances at the Gibraltar Watchpoint, and all other bases of operation are heavily, heavily guarded. She could take them out, theoretically, but where there is one, there are many. She knows the Oxton girl and her primate friend have reinforcements, now, and she is not so stupid as to imagine taking down the entire taskforce single-handedly. 

She considers. On purely technical terms, their working together is more likely to achieve results. Offering out her hand in alliance would work if they legitimately believed her account, but Athena herself is so hard to compromise, and Talon has botched up so many attempts, she figures they're more likely to believe an actual arachnid.

She could surrender herself. The very thought makes her uncomfortable, laying herself bare in enemy hands, allowing them to strip her of her most prized possessions, it is the ultimate disgrace to lose to them. But if Gabriel is correct, if the information is so key to Talon's livelihood, she is willing to sacrifice.

She has to confirm. Gabriel must prove this intel is worth her protection. Or she will promptly leave him in the dust to suffer and wallow in his own self-pity.

* * *

"Can I help you, _viuda negra?_  Or are you calling me to 'make conversation'?"

"Show me the information."

Gabriel's voice is strained. "What information?"

"Don't be obtuse, _ami,_ it doesn't suit you."

He's silent on the other end for a good minute. She brushes a hand through her hair and leans back in the seat to wait. The moonlight is soft through the window of her quarters, seeping down onto the floor, over her supplies and repair gear, glinting off the barrel of her gun. Finally, Gabriel says, "I can't. Show you."

She flicks a ball of scrunched up paper into the wastebin beside her and heaves a bored sigh. "I cannot agree to protect something if I do not know what it is. You know this."

There's a low growl, and the sound of items clattering to the floor. "You don't have a choice."

Amélie blinks back. The nerve of this man is frankly incredible. "And why is that?"

"I know things," Gabriel says, very carefully. "About him. Athena has all of it."

She's on her feet immediately. It can't be. It _can't._  Talon had told her they'd purged the information from Athena's databases. They'd left her with the only remaining copy, which she's guarded with her own life. It remains uncompromised. "You're wrong."

"Come," he grits out, "and see for yourself, Amélie."

He's lying. Playing her. He's desperate, so desperate, if he's trying to trick the trickster. If this intel truly is of such great importance to him, then she needs it. Leverage, blackmail, extortion, the list flies before her eyes and lights her smile in a long, slow twist. She'll step into his game, now, and she will win.

"Very well," she says. "I will help you secure Athena. That is, if your words are not as empty as I think."

Gabriel gives no thanks, but she knows he is relieved nonetheless. The corner of her mouth twitches up. "Plan of attack?"

Amélie twirls a finger. "The only way in is through."

She hears claws scrape against the hard metal of a desk. "Don't be vague with me, _viuda._ D'you think I've got patience to test?"

"We surrender ourselves to them," she says, biting her lips as they try to curl into a low smirk. Ah, to tame the beast. He will abide by her now, and her only. "It is the most secure way in. No risk, no complications. They cannot kill us, we know too much -- information too precious to sacrifice. I will alert Talon, you work on securing us a route to Gibraltar. Openly. A repeat attempt of last time would be most unfortunate."

Gabriel snarls. "That's not the only way-"

"It's my way. And if you'd like to see continued success with this organisation, I suggest you listen to what I have to say, _ami._ "

She hangs up before she's subjected to another fit of rage, and stretches back against her chair, entwining a foot in the line of her grappling hook. This will work. She will save her data, and his, and have him -- no, the entire Overwatch team -- in her pocket before they've even begun.

What an interesting turn of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reaper is actually competent, I promise. Widow is just smug asf, let's be real.
> 
> no but legit can u imagine widow and reaper as best friends... oh shit #squadgoals lemme make it happen brb


End file.
